Etymologically
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rostratus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [roːsˈtraː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [rosˈtraː.tus][1]

Forms

rōstrātus (feminine rōstrāta, neuter rōstrātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rōstrum (“beak, snout”) + -ātus.[2][1][3][4] De Vaan lists both among the derivatives of rōdō (“to gnaw”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *(w)rōde/o- and Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d-e/o- or *ureh₃d-e/o- (“to gnaw, furrow”); he calls the root etymology uncertain.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ennius,[5] of a warship: trabes remis rostrata per altum (“the beaked ship, with its oars, over the deep”).[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero has a beaked warship caught in harbour,[2][7] Horace beaked prows,[2] and Livy and Tacitus beaked ships, among them those that guarded the coast of Gaul.[2] Pliny the Elder says that geese fly with a beaked thrust, like Liburnian ships, cleaving the air more easily.[2][7]

The columna rostrata was a column in the Forum adorned with the beaks of enemy ships taken in the First Punic War,[2] put up for Duilius.[8][6] The corona rostrata was a crown with small ships' beaks given to the first man to board an enemy ship;[2][7] Virgil has Agrippa's temples gleaming with it.[7][9] Columella and Pliny use the word of beak-shaped tools, hooked sickles and a kind of ploughshare.[2][7]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a beaked warship.[2][5][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a warship.[2][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil mentions the naval crown.[7][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy mentions the columna rostrata.[2][3]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of hooked sickles.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Beak-shaped, hooked at the end.[2][7]
  2. (of warships) Having a beaked prow;[2][7] (feminine as a noun) a beaked warship.[2][7]
  3. columna rostrāta: a rostral column in the Forum.[2][8]
  4. corōna rostrāta: the naval crown.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.